tbb,Can you suggest some nearby hotels?Dutch, and others from CKS, it will be good to hang out with kiters again.I've been waiting to try this buggy with skis on a lake under kite power. I'm looking forward to this weekend.

A pic of the WAK SHAK on the ice! We are not as far out from shore as in previous years due to the conditions. We put it as close to shore as we could, but we needed to make sure we were far enough out to miss all the fishing traffic and the atv/snowmobile traffic. As you can tell, there isn't much snow to speak of right now, but we are still praying for the forecast to change around for us. We are committed to this date and will make the best of the conditions that are dealt to us. T Bagger Bob makes a good point about all the other activities that will be going on. I will post an update on conditions later in the week also.

Jason,If driving cars out on the ice isn't wise, where would family/spectators hang out? How would one "not" participating in the shennanigans stay warm or be out of the elements? Are propane heaters and shelters a good idea on the ice?

I was on the lake today setting up. It is nothing but ice pretty much everywhere. It isn't perfectly smooth, but we cruised all over the place on our Freeskates. There are patches of smooth ice, then patches of a little rougher ice, but nothing we couldn't ride through on the Freeskates. I think any ice boats or buggies will be a blast. Kiters on skis or boarders with switchblades should be able to ride. There is plenty of wind in the forecast, so I think kiters are definitely going to want small kites with all the ice. Any of the winter windsurfing gear should be perfect for this weekend also. I think doing anything wind driven on ice skates will probably be out though as the rough spots might be too much for skates. There are smooth patches where you can ice skate though. I will update tomorrow night also! Thought I would post a link to a pic we took today on the ice. I haven't windsurfed in several years now, but it was pretty fun today on the Freeskates!

@beetlehead: We drove out to the shack today. It is close enough to shore that you can walk out to the site also. We will also have a tent for warming. The WAK Shak is also heated and pretty toasty, so you can always warm up in there also. With the way we positioned the WAK Shak and the tent, it should make a nice little windbreak to keep spectators a little warmer also. I think driving out will not be a problem, just keep a little space between the cars. We will be drilling a couple holes tomorrow to get an ice depth reading. This is a picture of the WAK shak on the ice as it sits now. The picture makes it appear to be further from shore than it really is.

Thanks to all who did the stampede snow dance. It did work and we got snow and plenty of wind. Actually, it was so windy today, that the snow was really blowing around. We got 3-4inches with 1 ft drifts. The Stampede site and most of the lake is now 50/50 snow/ice coverage with lots of drifts. Lot's of wind in the forecast for the weekend. Temps on sat are expected to be in the teens, so come prepared. We do have a heated tent and of course the WAK Shak. Bonfire and awards are planned for sat night. We did drill a couple of holes at the site and we had anywhere from 10-13" of ice. It is safe to drive right out to the site, but close enough you can walk out if you choose to also. We will have to see what conditions are like in the morning as the wind was still whipping when I got off the lake an hour ago. If the wind keeps blowing like it is, by morning the lake might be polished off again. STAMPEDE.. Spread the word!

Great wind conditions today. I need to make some carbide additions to the skis on the buggy. Not enough of an edge to cut up wind. It was cool meeting you guys up in Wisconsin. I had a rough time with the kites today. Thanks to the guys who came to help with my rolling, rolling, rolling.......kite. Ice is a different beast! Now it is time to untangle.

Conditions were a little challenging. Guys were out riding on all sorts of equipment: kite and skis, kite and board, kite and snow buggies, kite and ice boat, winterboard windsurfing, freeskates, batwings, snowfers. For the most part, you want to have something that will go over/through the drifts and still hopefully catch an edge on the bare spots. We did run one race which was a straight "there and back" course. Then we did GPS speed drags. Fastest speed on a kite was 36.1 mph with skis, fast speed all day was 41.1 mph on a batwing/windwing. We will probably run the same events today. Conditions are still 50-50 on the ice/snow coverage. There is still good wind in the forecast.

I made a last minute decision to head up to Fon Du Lac and enjoy a nice warm day in the sun. Well it wasn't warm and there was not as much snow as one would wish but like Jason said everybody made the most of it. Thank you to WAK and everybody who contributes to puting that event on. My camera was limping along on low battery, otherwise I would have pictures of a 4 foot long frozen sturgeon sticking straight up out of a snowbank, everybody gulping down the delicous lemenchello and lots of folks just having a good time.

Here`s a pic of the sturgeon Jens refers to, the actual numbers on this fish was 62 inches and 52lbs.Did`t get any pics of people gulping lemonchello, but it sure was tasty.And some other Stampede 2012 pics.

Sorry for the delay, but I came down with a nasty flu and a sinus infection from the weekend out at the Stampede last weekend. Last weekend the conditions were challenging all weekend, but the fun wasn't. Thanks to all of you who attended and participated in the fun. Let's hope the wind and snow gods show us good favor next year. With the type of "winter" we have had so far, I am sure the ice will be gone much sooner than normal this year. The WAK is going to try to host it's first summer kiteboarding event this summer. I will definitely post up the info when it becomes available. If you are interested in checking out more pics from the 2012 Sturgeon Stampede, check out the slideshow on our homepage: http://www.wakkiteboarding.comThanks again!